Half-Brain Falls Asleep

"Young man, I haven't seen you at the pool for a few days. What's the matter? Did you cure your insomnia, so you don't need to come here and play a floating corpse in the water anymore?"

In front of the entrance to the Sham Shui Po Public Swimming Pool, Uncle Kin, who was in his fifties, saw Yang Chu appear. He set aside his newspaper for once, his tone carrying a hint of sarcasm.

"The insomnia isn't cured yet." Yang Chu reached out and pulled out seventeen Hong Kong dollars, handing them to Uncle Kin. "But I found a new pool. It's quiet at night and there are fewer people."

"Tch, don't give me that! Hong Kong Island has plenty of pools, but they're all for the rich. You're someone who spends a dozen bucks at a public pool; where else could you possibly go?"

Uncle Kin's tone was sharp, but as he looked at the money Yang Chu offered, he only took a ten-dollar note. "It's discounted at night. If you'd come any later, I would've waived this tenner too. You young people these days, you're all being squeezed dry. Sigh, take care of yourself—don't end up living in a cage home when you're old."

"Thank you, Uncle Kin."

Yang Chu smiled, stuffed the remaining seven dollars back into his pocket, and headed toward the shower area.

"What are you thanking me for!" Uncle Kin shook his head as he sat back down, picked up the newspaper he had been reading, and began to hum a little tune while bobbing his head. "We working stiffs, walking the streets until our guts ache, earning a pittance that's never enough by the end of the month..."

After a splash of water, when Yang Chu returned to the poolside, Uncle Kin, who had been humming and reading, glanced over and looked surprised. "Wow, kid, have you been eating feed? You've grown fast! Where are you working?"

"Filming, working as a stuntman."

Yang Chu stood by the pool in his swimming trunks, doing some simple stretches as he answered.

His body had begun to show muscle definition; while not yet powerful, it was a vast improvement over the skin-and-bones look he'd had before.

His physical fitness was now on par with, or perhaps even slightly superior to, that of an average adult male.

Furthermore, thanks to his training, most of his ligaments had completely loosened, allowing him to unleash far more power than he ever could before.

"A stuntman, huh..."

Uncle Kin, flipping through his paper, didn't seem very interested in the job and waved his hand. "I hear that's easy to get hurt in. While you're young, save some money."

"I only worked for two days. I didn't go today."

Yang Chu stood by the pool and smiled, then suddenly plunged into the four-meter-deep end with a splash.

"You little punk, you quit after two days?"

Uncle Kin stood up from his chair, watching Yang Chu surface from the water, and shouted, "You had a good job, you should cherish the opportunity! When I was your age, I worked five jobs a day. Be more ambitious!"

"I know, Uncle Kin. I probably won't be coming to this pool much anymore."

Yang Chu floated on his back, his body relaxed, and spoke casually.

"What? Can't handle a little advice?" Uncle Kin seemed a bit angry. "Hmph, I just see you young people with no drive. Forget it, we're not related, what right do I have? Never mind."

With that, Uncle Kin sat back down in a huff and grabbed his newspaper to flip through it, but he couldn't focus. He glanced at Yang Chu floating on the water, decided to look away to save himself the annoyance, and stood up to grab a mop and start cleaning the floor.

After mopping for a while, Uncle Kin seemed to regain his composure and shouted at Yang Chu, who was drifting in the deep end, "Punk, you seem to be talking more today."

In previous visits, Yang Chu had always been in a state of utter indifference. Today, he had actually managed to say a few sentences, even managing to provoke him.

Yang Chu naturally heard the pool attendant's shout. He was very clear about his own changes; ever since the intense desire to explore martial arts and combat techniques had surged within him, his emotional responses had indeed become slightly more pronounced than before.

Floating on the surface of the deep end, the weather these past few days hadn't been as sweltering as before. By eight or nine in the evening, the pool was empty.

Yang Chu did not enter that chaotic state of sleep where he lost all perception of the outside world. Instead, he looked at the night sky, felt the surrounding stillness, and whispered to himself.

"I am in deep water. If I fall into a deep sleep, I might inhale water and suffocate to death."

"On the way to the public pool, I sensed someone seemed to be following me. Their identity is unknown, and they might mean me harm."

"If I fall into a sleep where I lose perception of the outside world, I will be in danger..."

"Danger from the outside is closing in on me. I cannot sleep, but my brain needs rest."

Floating on the water, Yang Chu repeated his situation over and over, engaging in self-suggestion and self-hypnosis.

This kind of self-suggestion, which would take an ordinary person a long time to achieve, was something Yang Chu could now accomplish in very little time.

Although he couldn't control his brain the way he could his body's major systems, the massive intake of energy had enhanced his brain's capabilities in every aspect, to a degree that occasionally surprised even Yang Chu himself.

What Yang Chu wanted to try today was a different way of entering sleep.

While reading various books earlier, he had come across the different sleep states of terrestrial and aquatic mammals. Most terrestrial mammals have a stable sleep cycle—active during the day and resting at night, or vice versa.

Aquatic mammals, like dolphins, however, alternate sleep between their left and right hemispheres to adapt to life in the water.

Yang Chu had actually wanted to try this peculiar method of sleeping before, but he hadn't been able to do it at the time.

His previous meditation-like sleep state was actually a shallow level of sleep. The reason he could maintain control over his body was that his brain was in a deep slumber, and his consciousness was trapped within a dream constructed by his brain; his maintenance of bodily functions was essentially a form of sleepwalking.

Therefore, while Yang Chu had consciousness and controlled his body's systems, he had lost all perception of the outside world.

If a crisis occurred, he would have to fully wake himself up to respond.

But alternating sleep between the left and right hemispheres meant that while one hemisphere slept, the other remained awake. This reduced the efficiency of the rest, but it allowed him to maintain perception of the outside world.

Following his self-suggestion, his left eye slowly closed while his right eye remained open.

Because the left and right hemispheres of the human brain control the body in a symmetrical, cross-wired fashion, his left hand and foot could still gently tread water, and his right ear could still hear the sounds of the outside world.

After about five or six minutes, Yang Chu opened his left eye and closed his right. His right hand and foot could now gently paddle the water, and his left ear could hear the faint, distant noise of car horns.

After repeating this alternation a few times, Yang Chu suddenly heard a sound from outside the swimming pool.

"Finally here, are you?"

Yang Chu opened both eyes, his consciousness fully taking control of his body.

The reason he chose to try this method today was to place himself in this state of uncertainty; only by keeping his mind half-alert could he better master this new method of alternating hemispheric sleep.

It seemed the results were quite good.

And the unknown... danger or whatever else he had been waiting for, had finally lost its patience and appeared.